Welcome To The Big Show!

Grab a cup of coffee at the window from the surly old guy in the dirty apron with the cigarette hanging out of his kisser. Come and sit a spell at the weathered table under the grass stained canvas top. Enjoy the smell of hot popcorn and cotton candy drifting across the freshly cut grass and take in the sounds of the wheezy old Wurlitzer Band Organ mixing with the children’s laughter. You’re just in time for the bally on the 10 in 1 and the marks are flashing plenty of stew.

This is jackpot central …. if you made it this far, you’re playing a red one. I am constantly humbled by the thanks I get from those who visit my site. They love the old photos and stories from the road that bring light on the history of our business . I guess I feel a sense of obligation to keep these things alive because they are the chronicles of those who came before me and shaped my world. You see, I AM a “Showman” and proud of my heritage. Right from the very first moment that I stepped on the midway, heard those sounds, smelled those scents and saw those moving, colored lights, I knew, without a doubt, that’s what I wanted to be.

I hear many of those people who grew up in my era and spent their lives in other fields say wistfully “I wanted to run away with the circus/ carnival when I was a kid, but never did.” Ithink that’s because many are called, but few are chosen to be immersed in this colorful lifestyle. It’s a hard, sometimes brutal life and always has been. It seems to attract a different type of individual. Call them “mavericks”, “free thinkers” even “rebels” all those names could, in some respect, apply. They all fit those unsuited to the dictates of what’s considered mainstream’ normal society’.

Most of those “wannabe’s” who had the internal fortitude to actually take the leap and “run away with the carnival/circus” and taste the experience for themselves, only lasted a brief season, if that long. (We refer to them as “First Of May’s”). But there were many, who not only lasted the season but went on to spend their entire lives on the “old sawdust trail” and they lived a life of colorful adventures that most people can’t even imagine.

The early pioneers of this business had imagination and drive and worked tenaciously in an age where hard work was considered the norm. Many were immigrants who saw an opportunity to get wealthy and brought their European ideas and traditions to their new, adopted country and applied them to fit the landscape. Like so many of their generation, they were the ground breakers of their industry.

For those of the modern age, it’s hard to even comprehend that at one time, long before the internet, I-phones, satellite television, theme parks and interstate highways, mile long rail road carnivals and circus’s crisscrossed the landscape, bringing entertainment and wonders that most people in America would see and experience for the very first time in their lives and could never have even imagined existed.

The first motion pictures many people saw, long before multi-plex theaters sat beside every shopping mall, were under a hot, smelly, airless canvas tent on the back lot of a carnival midway. People from many rural communities got their very first look at an exotic animal when the circus came to town and they saw an elephant in the main street parade and a lion in an ornate cage wagon pulled by a team of perfectly matched white horses.

They saved up their nickels all year long in a Mason Jar or chalk “piggy bank“, watched in amazement, Annie Oakley shoot her guns with matchless precision, Tom Mix and his magical horse do the things dreams are made of, and beautiful, costumed girls gracefully fly through the air like mystical birds on a trapeze under huge canvas tents. They rode thrilling mechanical rides, observed strange and unusual people, tasted cotton candy and listened as a beautifully decorated machine actually played music like a entire brass band. Perhaps grandpa and dad thought up some excuse to sneak off on Saturday night to gamble a few bucks on the games of chance and see those wanton “hootchie- cootchie” girls in the back tent that the local women were all so up in arms over.

Then, like something magical, the show was gone into the night. Life went back to its normal, slow pace and the magic disappeared back into an empty grassy lot once more until those colorful rail road trains, loaded with the mysterious, brightly painted wagons came again. These shows and the people who were responsible for bringing that magic are important to me. They made my life possible. They created something wonderful. Something that will never, ever come again. I don’t want them to ever be forgotten.

Now, with the modern technology that has been the very instrument of undoing the world they created, I have an opportunity to scour the world and put all this information in one place and space. I am fortunate to live in the one town in all the world that abounds, more than any other, in the rich history of our business and I am blessed to personally know and have known many of the colorful characters that were so instrumental in forging that unique history.

To quote a line from the wonderful novel ‘Water For Elephants’…. I have lived a good life…a big life.. I have no regrets” . . . I’ll try and share some of that life as best I can and keep the light burning.

*** Doc’s Midway Cookhouse has many historical circus and old carnival photos as well as many written articles that are best viewed at a clearer resolution in the ‘Google Chrome’ browser.

Dining Tent With Crew From Sparks Circus In The 1940s

Vintage Carnival Rides

The King Amusement Company Factory Built Many A Carnival Ride The King Amusement Company out of Mt. Clemens Michigan turned out many rides from the 1940’s through the late 1960’s. They could never be confused as the “Cadillac of Ride Builders”, in fact most of what they built was just marginal. But they built a […]

The Fly O Plane – Interactive Thrill Ride Vintage Carnival Rides For those of you too young to have ever seen one of these in action – check this vintage carnival ride – Fly O Plane The Fly O Plane ride was manufactured in 1948 by Eyerly Aircraft Company. The Fly O Plane was originally designed to […]

Thrill Ride – The Flying Scooter Popular Vintage Carnival Rides Bisch-Rocco, The Flying Scooters, have been around for over three quarters of a century, not bad for ride with such a simple concept. The Flying Scooter has its roots in other carnival rides of the early 1900s including Harry Traver’s Circle Swing. Traver’s swing involved a […]

How The Merry Go Round Got Its Start In America Parker Carousel Company Builds A Production Model of A Merry Go Round When traveling amusement devices were in their infancy, one of the first was a Merry-Go Round or Carousel. The name Carousel is derived from the name “Carry Us All” which was the […]

Carnival History

Big Shows Fire Departments Ensured Safety Carnival Shows Had Their Own Fire Department Some of the bigger carnival sows had their own fire department. It was important that fires be brought under control quickly to keep from spreading on a tight midway. The local fire trucks, especially coming from a volunteer fire company, could take as long […]

1893 Chicago World’s Fair The Temporary City I’m continually amazed at the history of the World’s Columbian Exposition’s “White City”or Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893 because it was the beginning of all carnival related enterprises here in America. Without it’s inception it’s possible there would have been no carnival midways here or anywhere . . […]

Crafts 20 Big Shows Legacy Comes To An End In the early 1960’s, after the death of Orville Craft, the once great ‘Crafts 20 Big Shows’ finally went to auction. The winter quarters property, in North Hollywood California, had become so valuable that it was worth far more than the show had ever been despite […]

The Way It Was On The Midways Of The Past A Look Back At The Carnival Midway . . . Retrace The Rich History of The Carnival I’m often asked by museum patrons how the business has changed…to compare today’s midways with the midways of the past. I guess the most obvious comparison is the logistics. […]

American Railroad history with the Carnival and Circus Factual History of The Old Rail Road Carnival and Circus By: “Doc” Rivera The American circus is older than the country itself. The first circus troupe of record dates back to 1724 when a small troupe gave its first performance in an open arena outside of Philadelphia. […]

Western Shows

Lash La Rue Could Really Crack A Whip The Good Guy Cowboy Hero That Always Wore Black Alfred “Lash” La Rue (June 15, 1917–May 21, 1996) was a popular western motion picture star of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Lash La Rue comic books sold over one million copies around the world. LaRue, who adopted the […]

Midway Slideshow

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Hrubetz is generally credited with inventing the venerable Paratrooper ride.This ride today is considered a staple on most midways in America sharing the spotlight with such consistent old favorites as the Tilt-A-Whirl and Merry-Go-Round. The ride was, in many ways, basically an improvement over the previously designed "Spitfire" which had bulkier, airplane style tubs and took up more truck and wagon space and was harder to set up and move. However, in the context of: "everything old is new again," I submit a photo of one of the first Paratrooper style rides, which you can see was invented far earlier, probably in the early 1920's. ... See MoreSee Less

Circus and Carnival Museums

Magic Acts

Hilliar – The Man That Can Tell William John Hilliar was a professional magician that performed in vaudeville in the 1900s. He ghost-wrote Howard “Thurston’s Card Tricks” (1901) He also ghost-wrote T. Nelson Down’s book “Modern Coin Manipulation” and wrote his own book “Modern Magician’s Hand Book” (1902). and wrote the column on […]

Carnivals

History of Traveling Shows In America International Independent Showmen’s Museum Keeps Early Form of Entertainment Alive Long ago, when the country was still young and everything was infinitely possible, mile long railroad trains loaded with colorful wagons full of exotic mysteries traveled through the darkness of night bringing the only form of entertainment that many […]

Carnival Movies

Hollywood And The Midway Movies Come To The Tented World If you’re like me, you love old films that have anything to do with ‘The Biz’. Victor Mature is great in the 1959 classic: The Big Circus which is an example of a little known Hollywood gem. Elvis Presley in Roustabout features colorful scenes from the […]